The Royal Family has a long tradition of enjoying bloodsports, although it has, on occasion, proved a risky passion.

In 1100, King William II was killed by an arrow while hunting deer in the New Forest and more than 900 years later in 2001, the Prince of Wales fractured his shoulder after he fell off his horse while hunting.

Henry VIII was a passionate hunter and in 1543, built a special hunting lodge known as the Great Standing in Essex. Surrounded by 6,000 acres of parkland, it was constructed on a grandstand or platform that allowed guests to both view the hunt from a high vantage point and participate in the shoot their crossbows from the upper floors.

King James I was an avid fan of greyhound coursing and built a hunting lodge in Newmarket. In 1619, he ordered the release of 100 hares and 100 partridges every year at Newmarket races to maintain the quality of hunting in the area.

King Edward VII provoked controversy in 1868 when he chased a deer from Harrow through Wormwood Scrubs to the Goods Yard at Paddington Station, where it was killed before the astonished eyes of railway guards and porters.

Kate Middleton and Prince Charles go hunting
13 Oct 2007

His son, George V was a passionate game bird enthusiast and transformed the once elitist sport into a more mainstream sport. In 1913, a party led by George V killed 3,937 birds in one day. He also shot 21 tigers on a hunting trip to India.

The Queen’s father, George VI, was also a shooting enthusiast. On January 24, 1952 – his last shoot – his party shot 90 pheasants, 17 rabbits, two pigeons and three mallards.

His wife, the Queen Mother, had a fondness for fly fishing and would travel to Birkhall on the Balmoral estate in Scotland, for a fishing break every summer, where she fished on the River Dee until well into her eighties dressed in her customary waders, Macintosh, hat and pearls.

In 1993, when she was hospitalised having choked on a fishbone, the Queen Mother joked: “It’s the salmon’s revenge!”

The current generation of the royals are just as passionate about bloodsports as their ancestors.

Prince Charles and Princes William and Harry are keen shotsmen and stalkers and members of the royal family are said to have been deeply “disappointed” when the hunting ban was introduced.